II
THE ENCLOSURE
If you seek among writers for information as to the habits of Scarabæus sacer in particular, and on the dung robbers in general, you find that science has not got beyond some of the beliefs current in the time of the Pharaohs. We are told that the ball which is dragged along contains an egg, and is a cradle where the larva will find board and lodging. The parents roll it over rough ground to make it round, and when shocks and shakes and tumbles all along the slopes have shaped it properly, they bury it and abandon it to mother earth.
So rough a start in life always seemed to me unlikely. How could a beetle’s egg, so tender and fragile as it is, endure the rocking of its rolling cradle? There exists in the germ a spark of life which the slightest touch, the merest trifle, can extinguish, and is it likely that the parents should take it into their heads to lug it about over hill and dale for hours? Not they; maternal tenderness does not subject its progeny to the martyrdom of Regulus.
However, something more than logical reasoning [[28]]was required to sweep away received opinions. I therefore opened hundreds of balls rolled by the dung beetles and others out of holes dug under my eyes, and never, never did I find either a central niche or an egg in the pellets. They are invariably rough heaps of food, hastily shaped, with no particular structure inside them, merely provender with which the beetles shut themselves up to enjoy an orgy in peace for some days. They covet and steal them with an energy which they certainly would not show if it implied new family cares. It would be absurd for one Scarabæus to steal the eggs of another, each having enough to do in securing the future of its own. So on that point no more doubt can exist; the balls rolled by beetles never contain eggs.
My first attempt to resolve the thorny question as to the bringing up of the larva was by constructing an ample enclosure with an artificial soil of sand and soil constantly renewed. Some twenty Scarabæus sacer were introduced, together with Copris, Gymnopleurus, and Onthophagus, and never did entomological experiment cost me so many mortifications. The main difficulty was to renew the food. My landlord owned a stable and a horse. I gained the confidence of his servant, who first laughed at my plans, and then allowed himself to be gained over by a silver coin. Every breakfast for my beetles cost twopence halfpenny; never before did the budget of a scavenger beetle amount to such a sum, I can still see and shall always see Joseph, as, when after grooming his horse of a morning, he would raise his head a little above the wall between the two gardens and call “Heigh! heigh!” on [[29]]which I would hurry to receive a pot of manure. Discretion on both sides was necessary, as will be seen. One day his master appeared at the moment of transfer, and made up his mind that all his manure went over the wall, and that what he wanted for his cabbages went to grow my verbenas and narcissus. Vainly did I try to explain; my explanations seemed to him mere jests. Joseph got a sound scolding, was called this and that, and threatened with dismissal if it happened again. It did not.
I still had the resource of going bashfully along the road with a twist of paper to gather up stealthily provisions for my pupils. I did so, and do not blush for it. Sometimes fate was kind. A donkey carrying the produce of the market-gardens of Château-Renard and Barbentane to Avignon would depose an offering as he passed my door. Such a gift, instantly collected, enriched me for several days. In short, by hook or by crook, by watching for a dropping, or turning diplomatist to get one, I succeeded in feeding my captives. If success is earned by an experiment conducted with a fervour that nothing can discourage, my experiment deserved to prosper. It did not. After some time my Scarabæi, consumed by home-sickness in a space which deprived them of their wider movements, let themselves die miserably without revealing their secret. Gymnopleurus and Onthophagus responded better to my expectations. In due time I shall use the information furnished by them.
Along with my attempts at education in an enclosed space, I carried on direct researches, the [[30]]results of which were far from what I desired. I felt that I must have assistants. Just then a joyous band of children were crossing the high land. It was a Thursday, and oblivious of school and hated lessons, an apple in one hand and a piece of bread in the other, they were coming from the neighbouring village of Les Angles and wending their way to search on the bare hill where the bullets drop when the garrison is shooting at a mark. A few bits of lead, worth about a halfpenny, were the object of this early morning expedition.
The tiny rosy flowers of wild geranium enamelled the turf which for a brief moment beautified this Arabia Petrea; the water wagtail, half black, half white, uttered its scornful cry as it fluttered from one point of rock to another; on the threshold of burrows, dug at the foot of tufts of thyme, the field-crickets filled the air with their monotonous symphony. And the children were happy in this festival of spring—happier still at their prospective riches—that halfpenny which they would get in return for the bullets they would find, that halfpenny which would enable them next Sunday to buy at the stall set up before the church two peppermint bull’s-eyes—two great bull’s-eyes at a farthing apiece!
I accosted the tallest, whose wide-awake air gave me hopes of him; the little ones formed a circle, each munching his apple; I explained the matter and showed them Scarabæus sacer rolling his ball, and told them that in a like ball, buried somewhere, I knew not where, a hollow is sometimes found, and in this hollow a grub. The thing to be done was to [[31]]search about and watch the beetles in order to find such a ball. Those with no maggot would not count. To stimulate the children by a fabulous sum which would henceforward secure to me the time hitherto devoted to some farthing’s worth of lead, I promised a franc, a lovely new coin worth twenty halfpennies, for each inhabited ball. At the mention of this sum eyes opened wide with delightful naïveté. I had quite upset their ideas on the subject of money by naming this exorbitant price as the value of a piece of dirt. Then, to show I was in good earnest, I distributed some halfpence to clinch the bargain. The following week at the same day and hour I was to appear at the same place and faithfully perform the conditions of our compact towards all who should have made the precious discovery. Having thoroughly posted up all the party, I dismissed the children. “He really means it!” they said as they went away; “he really means it! If we could only get one apiece!” and with hearts swelling with sweet hope, they clinked their pence in the hollow of the hand. The flattened bullets were forgotten. I saw the children scatter over the plain and hunt about.